The new device, known as the Cold-Atom Vacuum Standard (CAVS), is small enough to fit vacuum chambers. And, unlike current vacuum gauges, needs no calibration at all.

NIST’s tabletop vacuum gauge “also meets Quantum SI criteria, meaning it requires no calibration, depends on fundamental constants of nature, reports the correct quantity or none at all, and has specified uncertainties that are suitable for its application. The new gauge tracks changes in the number of cold lithium atoms trapped by a laser and magnetic fields within the vacuum. The trapped atoms fluoresce as a result of the laser light.”

According to the study, NIST based their research into vacuum metrology on trapping ultracold atoms with the goal of building deployable vacuum gauges.

The result of the research is the p-CAVS that’s designed to replace existing CAVS that are too large to deploy outside labs.

“Nobody has thought about how to miniaturize such a cold-atom vacuum gauge and what kinds of uncertainties it would entail. We are in the process of developing such a system that could potentially replace sensors now on the market, as well as figuring out how to operate and evaluate it.”

NIST researchers are now testing individual components of their new vacuum gauge and expect a working prototype to be ready “in the near future.”

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